AFRICA: A DREAM DEFERRED by John Gay can be used as a text or as supplementary reading for an introductory course in Africa south of the Sahara, or for anyone interested in contemporary African affairs.
Topics covered in the book include the changed moral order, indigenous knowledge, elite domination, education and schooling, demography, religion, medicine, western exploitation, political systems, centralized command economies, and military conflict. In each section historical references support the analysis of the current situation. The book concludes with suggestion for ways in which Africans themselves can take control of their lives and their futures. This book is strongly recommended by Africans, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Professor Dunn of Liberia, as well as Africanists and human rights advocates in the United States:

“I think your analysis is spot on. . .remembering just how some of the dictators. . . deplore were sponsored by western rulers as surrogates in the cold war.”

--Archbishop Desmond Tutu

“The book offers something rather different and special, midway between a pure memoir of a bygone age and a scholarly assessment of social science criteria about governance, political culture, and the like. . .

--James McCann, head of African Studies at Boston University

“Once I started, I couldn’t stop. I believe that this is a masterpiece!”

--Herbert Spirer, Columbia University Center for the Study of Human Rights